French Past Participle - Le participe passé
How to conjugate and use the French past participle
Lesson | Quiz
The participe passé is the French equivalent of the -ed form of English verbs. It has three main uses:
1. With an auxiliary verb, it forms compound tenses
such as the passé composé:
| J'ai travaillé hier. | I worked yesterday. | |
| Il est arrivé à midi. | He arrived at noon. |
2. With être, it is used to conjugate the French passive
voice.
| Le ménage est fait tous les jours. | The housework is done every day. | |
| Ce film sera suivi d'une discussion. | This movie will be followed by a discussion. |
3. Standing alone or with être, the French past participle may be an adjective. Note that in some
instances, the participe passé may be translated by the English present
participle.
| Fatigué, je suis rentré à minuit. | Tired, I went home at midnight. |
| Le garçon déçu a pleuré. | The disappointed boy cried. |
| Le chien assis sur le canapé est mignon. | The dog sitting (seated) on the couch is cute. |
| Je ne vois pas d'homme agenouillé. | I don't see a kneeling man. |
| Ce livre est écrit en espagnol. | This book is written in Spanish. |
| Sais-tu si le débat est terminé ? | Do you know if the debate is finished? |
The past participle
of regular verbs is formed by dropping the infinitive ending of a verb and
adding é, i, or u to -er, -ir, and -re verbs,
respectively:
| -ER verbs | -IR verbs | -RE verbs | |||
| Verb | parler | réussir | vendre | ||
| Remove | -er | -ir | -re | ||
| Stem | parl- | réuss- | vend- | ||
| Add | é | i | u | ||
| Result | parlé | réussi | vendu |
Irregular verbs usually have irregular past participles:
| acquérir | acquis | apprendre | appris | |
| atteindre | atteint | avoir | eu | |
| boire | bu | comprendre | compris | |
| conduire | conduit | connaître | connu | |
| construire | construit | courir | couru | |
| couvrir | couvert | craindre | craint | |
| croire | cru | décevoir | déçu | |
| découvrir | découvert | devoir | dû | |
| dire | dit | écrire | écrit | |
| être | été | faire | fait | |
| instruire | instruit | joindre | joint | |
| lire | lu | mettre | mis | |
| mourir | mort | offrir | offert | |
| ouvrir | ouvert | naître | né | |
| paraître | paru | peindre | peint | |
| pouvoir | pu | prendre | pris | |
| produire | produit | recevoir | reçu | |
| savoir | su | souffrir | souffert | |
| suivre | suivi | tenir | tenu | |
| venir | venu | vivre | vécu | |
| voir | vu | vouloir | voulu |
When used in the passive voice or as an adjective, the
past participle needs to agree in gender and number with the word it modifies.
In the compound tenses, it may or may not need to agree, depending on certain
factors - learn more.
| La voiture est lavée par mon fils. | The car is washed by my son. | |
| Les solutions proposées sont parfaites. | The proposed solutions are perfect. | |
| Elles sont allées à la banque. | They went to the bank. | |
| Où est Lise ? Je l'ai vue ce matin. | Where is Lise? I saw her this morning. |
| Past Participles Quiz |
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